M’CHIGEENG—While he was expecting that Ontario premier Doug Ford would eventually reverse the government’s decision to open the Greenbelt to development, Ontario Regional Chief Glen Hare was surprised at how quickly it has been made.
“I’m excited and happy to hear the news, it was only a matter of time before the premier was going to have to make this decision, two ministers have already stepped down over this decision,” stated Regional Chief Glen Hare. “But I didn’t expect it would be made like that. I knew he was in Niagara Falls with his caucus and that he was going to be speaking today (Thursday), but the actual announcement I think caught everyone by surprise.”
Premier Doug Ford announced that he will be reversing his government’s decision to open the Greenbelt to developers. “I made a promise to you that I wouldn’t touch the Greenbelt. I broke that promise. And for that, I’m very, very sorry. I pride myself on keeping our promises. It was a mistake to open the Greenbelt. It was a mistake to establish a process that moves too fast.”
Premier Ford was quoted at the press conference as saying that the process involved in selecting what parcels of land would be removed from the Greenbelt left too much room for some people to benefit over others. “It caused people to question our motives. As a first step, to earn back your trust, I will be reversing the changes we made and won’t make any changes to the Greenbelt in the future.”
“Because even if you do something for the right reasons, with the best of intentions, it can still be wrong,” said Premier Ford. “We moved too quickly. And we made the wrong decision.”
Regional Chief Hare said, “it takes a big person that lied and misled people to admit they were wrong. He had originally said he was here for Ontarians but in the same breath he was taking away lands and trespassing on land that he shouldn’t have in the first place. And (under the proposal) they were taking land from the Williams Treaty, when they hadn’t consulted with First Nations or those communities in the Williams Treaty. While the decision has been reversed, I hope this is not the end of it. Hopefully the investigation will continue into all of this.”
“I know people are happy with the premier’s reversal of decision, but it is too little too late. A lot of people have already been hurt and look at the ministers and their families who have been affected by this, and the premier’s own cabinet members,” said Regional Chief Hare. He added that enough land had already been identified for the promised housing development the province wants to see take place, without the Greenbelt lands being part of it.
“I would make a suggestion to cities,” said Regional Chief Hare. “Build up, not out, build high rise apartments, don’t take over agriculture land and land that doesn’t belong to you. These lands are many people’s livelihoods.”
As has been reported previously, in August Ontario’s Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk released a scathing report on the government’s handling of Greenbelt land removals. The report also found that certain developers received preferential treatment and had direct influence over the government’s decision to extract lands. According to the auditor general, of the 7,400 acres of land removed from the Greenbelt by the province, 92 percent could be tied to three developers with direct access to the housing ministry.
“The owners of the 15 land sites could see more than an $8.3 billion increase to the value of their properties,” the report said.
The report also fond that the province has sufficient available land to build much-needed housing and that there was they didn’t need to remove lands from the Greenbelt in order to meet housing targets.
Premier Ford’s about face came a day after a second cabinet minister was forced to resign in the wake of the Greenbelt controversy.
MPP Kaleed Rasheed, Ontario’s minister of public and business service delivery, resigned from his cabinet post and the PC caucus last Wednesday after records revealed contradicting accounts of a Las Vegas trip that was investigated as part of the integrity commissioner’s investigation into the Greenbelt land deals.
According to the integrity commissioner, Rasheed and Amin Massoudi, the then-principal secretary to the premier, said they took a trip to Las Vegas in December 2019 and “exchanged pleasantries” with developer Shakir Rehmantullah in the lobby of a hotel. The former minister confirmed that he is a friend of the developer, and his company is listed as the owner of two of the sites removed from the Greenbelt but said he did not know Mr. Rehmantullah was going to be in the area at that time.
The minister’s resignation comes a few weeks after Ontario Housing Minister Steve Clark stepped down earlier in September after Ontario’s integrity commissioner found he had violated ethics rules in his role in overseeing the Greenbelt land removals.
